Bob McAdam

Bob McAdam is vice president of corporate affairs at Wal-Mart Stores.

McAdam, Rick Berman and Wal-Mart's top Washington D.C. lobbyist Lee Culpepper knew each other, Businessweek reported, in "various capacities during their time as lobbyists for the restaurant and tobacco industries in the 1990s."

In a media release WakeUpWalMart noted that "McAdam worked with Phillip Morris at the Tobacco Institute during the same period of time that Phillip Morris contributed $900,000 to Berman's pro-tobacco campaign." While McAdam was at the Tobacco Institute, he coordinated efforts to thwart local smoking restrictions across the U.S.  In Sacramento, California, McAdam assisted the tobacco industry in an effort to reverse a smoking ban that had already passed.

McAdam told Businessweek that Wal-Mart "have not contributed to the Center for Union Facts" nor funded them via any other group. 

McAdam told Associated Press "It is not a recent relationship. We've talked back and forth, he's told us stuff he's heard about union activity and we share stuff we've heard about union activity. It's a conversation," McAdam said. "The bottom line is, I know Rick Berman and I've talked with him. But that is the extent of my relationship with that organization," McAdam said. 

Other SourceWatch resources

 * Center for Union Facts